MotoGP Germany results, Grand Prix - Last lap battle previews title duel to come

MotoGP heads to the Sachsenring this weekend for the German Grand Prix, round seven of the 2023 season. Check back to this page throughout the weekend for MotoGP Germany results.

Overview

Grand Prix - Martin wins as Marquez misses out with finger fracture

Sprint - Martin wins as Marquez slumps to 11th

Qualifying - Bagnaia on pole as Marquez crashes three times

P2 - Marco Bezzecchi fastest on day one as Ducati dominates top 10

P1 - Brief rain intensifies final minutes as Zarco heads early running in German

Grand Prix

Sunny conditions made for a stable German MotoGP, at least from a meteorological perspective. On the other hand, the battle for the lead was far from predictable, with Jorge Martin winning out in a last lap battle with Francesco Bagnaia.

The drama for the 2023 German Grand Prix started back on Friday, really. Marc Marquez crashed in FP1, cleaning out Johann Zarco, in what would turn out to be the first of five for the weekend. The fifth and final fall, a high side at turn seven in Sunday morning warm-up, left the #93 Repsol Honda rider with a fractured first finger. He was declared fit, but decided to withdraw from the Grand Prix less than one hour before it was set to start. 

Having won each of the last 11 GPs he has started at Sachsenring, this weekend’s race was supposed to be the one opportunity - having missed Texas and Argentina for injury, and with no Aragon on the 2023 calendar - for Marquez to get back on top in a year when he is quite handicapped by his machinery. Instead, the Sachsenring has provided the setting for one of the most disastrous weekends in the history of Marquez’ partnership with HRC.

A typically lightning start for KTM’s Jack Miller saw him take the holeshot in Germany, while Francesco Bagnaia slotted into second place, ahead of Luca Marini.

Early signs were that Miller had a pace advantage over Bagnaia, who seemed to be struggling with front grip early on the first lap, but a mistake from Miller in turn 11 saw him drop to fourth, and Bagnaia assume the lead, with Jorge Martin, the Sprint winner, in second place, and Marini still third.

Martin took the lead for himself at turn 12 on lap three. He was initially able to pull away, but Bagnaia then stabilised the gap at around half-a-second.

Behind, the Ducati hegemony was broken by Brad Binder, who passed Luca Marini for third place on lap 10. Unfortunately for Binder, he made a mistake at turn eight on lap 20, and crashed out. 

By the end, that allowed Ducati to take a sweep of the top five positions.

The battle for the lead, the best of those five Ducatis, was not decided until the final lap. Bagnaia made his move to the front on lap 21, but he could not break Martin.
Martin went back to the front on lap 24, but he, too, could not break away. 

Martin ran out of right-side edge grip at the end of the race, and that cost Bagnaia, as he touched the rear tyre of his rival in the final corner of the penultimate lap, which left him with too much ground to make up on the final lap.

Although Bagnaia was able to arrive at the line within 0.064 seconds of Martin, he was unable to mount a serious charge on the final lap due to the time lost on the penultimate tour. 

Behind the two leaders, Johann Zarco completed the podium, seven seconds adrift of his victorious teammate, Martin. Zarco’s finish made sure of a third all-Ducati podium in 2023, and the second in a row after last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Luca Marini went backwards from his top three starting position, but still managed to take a top five finish. Ahead of him was Marco Bezzecchi, who, together with Marini, ensured Ducati locked out the top five positions at a circuit where no one had them picked as the manufacturer to beat, or, at least, not to the extent as in other tracks.

JackMiller was the first non-Ducati rider, finishing sixth for KTM, while Alex Marquez (7th), Enea Bastianini (8th), and Fabio Di Giannantonio (9th) made it eight Ducatis in the top nine. Miguel Oliveira finished 10th as the top-placed Aprilia rider. 

The top-placed Japanese bike was the Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli in 12th, while Takaaki Nakagami - the only Honda rider in the race - finished 14th.

Full MotoGP results from the German Grand Prix are below.

2023 MotoGP German Grand Prix | Sachsenring | Grand Prix Results

Sprint

The MotoGP Sprint at the Sachsenring saw Jorge Martin take victory, after a relatively processional race, despite an intense start.

Francesco Baganaia started from pole position after being disadvantaged the least from the yellow flags in Q2, but it was Jack Miller who made the holeshot on the KTM, although Bagnaia was back in the lead by turn 2.

Jorge Martin, though, made a lightning start, and was second by the end of lap one, but, after a period of leadership for Jack Miller, Martin took the lead at the end of lap four.

From there, Martin extended his advantage to almost two-and-a-half seconds over Bagnaia, who finished second, while Jack Miller solidified himself in third place.

Luca Marini won out in a savage battle with Brad Binder for fourth place, while the #33 had to make do with sixth, having also been out-done by the Ducati of Johann Zarco for fifth.

Binder was followed up by Marco Bezzecchi (7th), Alex Marquez (8th), Aleix Espargaro (9th, top Aprilia), and Enea Bastianini, who completed the top 10.

2023 MotoGP German Grand Prix | Sachsenring | Sprint Results

Qualifying

Qualifying for MotoGP in Germany presented the riders with complicated conditions, in that they were wet to begin with, but constantly drying. This was more of a factor in Q1 than Q2, in which Francesco Bagnaia took pole position.

Q1 saw the worst, or most complicated, of the conditions. The track was not far from being ready for slicks to begin with, and by half-distance in the session Brad Binder was the first rider to head out on slicks.

Marc Marquez, who crashed at the final corner and immediately ran across the track to get back to his dry bike, was the only rider to join Binder on slicks, and so it was little surprise when it was those two who made it through to Q2.

Marquez’ session seemed to be over with some immediacy in Q2, as he crashed, with some severity, at the final corner once again. He was fast, and had to adjust mid-corner to avoid Jack Miller, and no sooner had he touched the gas than he was being launched over the high side. Marquez was able to get back to the box not long after Marco Bezzecchi repeated his crash, but with only one bike available to him after his Q1 crash, there was a frantic repair job needed on the sole remaining #93 Honda to get him back out in qualifying.

Marquez was back out with five minutes left in the session, by which time Francesco Bagnaia was on provisional pole position and on his way back to the pits to change tyre.

The times continued to scroll in the final minutes of the session, until the final lap, when Marc Marquez crashed for the third time in qualifying at the first corner. That brought out yellow flags that cost multiple riders their final respective attempts, including the aforementioned Bagnaia, Jorge Martin - who was especially frustrated - and Marco Bezzecchi, whose penultimate attempt would have been good enough for pole, too, only for him to be denied by yellow flags for a crash for Johann Zarco at turn 11.

Bagnaia was the rider least impacted by the yellow flags, as he took pole position anyway, ahead of Luca Marini, one of the only riders to not be hampered by yellows at the end of Q2, and Jack Miller.

Johann Zarco, despite his late crash, qualified fourth, ahead of the aforementioned Bezzecchi (5th) and Martin (6th); while Marc Marquez will attempt to take his 12th Sachsenring win in 12 Sachsenring starts from seventh place.

Joining Marquez on the third row will be Alex Marquez and Brad Binder, while Aleix Espargaro (10th, top Aprilia), Enea Bastianini (11th), and Fabio Quartararo (12th, top Yamaha) make up row four.

Full MotoGP results from qualifying in Germany are below.

2023 MotoGP German Grand Prix | Sachsenring | Qualifying Results

P2

P2 in Sachsenring for the MotoGP riders looked, for a while, as though it would be wet. However, the track dried in time for the start of the session, which was topped by Marco Bezzecchi.

Rain over the lunch break and during Moto3 P2 meant that the track was not fully dry for the start of MotoGP P2. But, it was certainly dry enough for slicks, which did not seem as though it would be possible during Moto2 P2. 

Only 10 minutes into the session, though, there was a disruption for a crash for Takaaki Nakagami. The #30 LCR Honda rider crashed at turn 11, and the bike destroyed itself.

For Nakagami’s part, he seemed fine, but the red flag was required to pick up debris that had been left in the track. Nakagami had spoken on Thursday of his desire to try the Kalex chassis, that was debuted by HRC in Le Mans, on Friday in Sachsenring, but, after the crash, the one he had been given - that was previously allocated to Joan Mir before his injury in Mugello last week - was destroyed.

It was not an especially long red flag, and the riders were soon back out on track, although it was a while before the time attacks began, such is the reality of MotoGP’s condensed weekend format in 2023 that requires almost all of the race setup work to be done in P2.

After the first real hot laps, it was Francesco Bagnaia who had found himself at the top of the board, but the second runs were delayed by a second red flag of the session. On this occasion, it was for a crash for Marc Marquez, who locked the front on entry to turn one, and whose Honda RC213V careered through the front end of Johann Zarco’s Ducati Desmosedici GP23, which ripped the whole of that front end out of the bike. 

Somehow, both Marquez and Zarco were no only okay, but also able to get out when the red flags were withdrawn. Unfortunately for both of them, they missed the chequered flag. This was not so bad for Zarco, who finished P2 in 10th overall, but for Marquez it meant a trip to Q1, as he finished Friday only 14th.

On top after day one in Sachsenring was Marco Bezzecchi, ahead of Jorge Martin and Aleix Espargaro, while Francesco Bagnaia’s time from his first run ensured three Ducatis finished inside the top four positions on Friday.

Jack Miller was fifth on the lead KTM, ahead of Fabio Quartararo on the top-placed Japanese bike with his Yamaha M1. Luca Marini, meanwhile, was seventh, ahead of Enea Bastianini (8th), Alex Marquez (9th), and the aforementioned Zarco, who rounded out the top 10.

Full MotoGP Combined Practice results from the Sachsenring are below.

2023 MotoGP German Grand Prix | Sachsenring | Combined Practice Results

2023 MotoGP German Grand Prix | Sachsenring | P2 Results

P1

MotoGP P1 in Sachsenring got the weekend off to a dry start, despite some minor mid-session rain. Johann Zarco made the most of the dry conditions of the final 10 minutes, and ended the morning fastest.

Jorge Martin headed the session early on, and some mid-session spits of rain made it look briefly as though he had timed his fast lap to perfection. However, the rain did not last, and the riders were able to resume their time attacks in the final 10 minutes.

Johann Zarco took advantage of the late dry weather to end the session fastest, over one-and-a-half-tenths faster than Marc Marquez, who finished P1 in second place. Aleix Espargaro crashed in the opening minutes of the session, but finished it in third place.

Alex Marquez set the fourth-fastest time, ahead of Jorge Martin, who led before the mid-session rain. 

Fabio Quartararo rounded out the top six despite a late crash at turn one. His factory Yamaha teammate, Franco Morbidelli, also crashed, but at turn 11, and the Italian finished the session in 18th.

Back in the top 10, and it was Brad Binder who took seventh place, ahead of Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio, and Marco Bezzecchi, who rounded out the top 10.

Full MotoGP results from P1 in Germany are below.

2023 MotoGP German Grand Prix | Sachsenring | P1 Results

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